When draft day at the Baltimore Convention Center came around on Jan. 16, the Orlando Pride were always going to make a splash with their pick. Even before trading away the first-overall pick to acquire national-team players Emily Sonnett and Caitlin Foord, Orlando would already make some of its own history by drafting at least seventh overall.
The Pride had bigger plans for the draft, though. Orlando made a draft-day trade that sent forward Rachel Hill, the 2020 19th-overall pick, Orlando’s natural 2021 first-round pick and allocation money to the Chicago Red Stars for the third-overall and 26th-overall picks.
Orlando decided to spend its highest-ever draft pick on midfielder Taylor Kornieck of the University of Colorado, Boulder. The Pride also drafted defenders Courtney Petersen (No. 7 overall), Konya Plummer (No. 10 overall), Phoebe McClernon (No. 14 overall) and Cheyenne Shorts (No. 21 overall) and forward Abi Kim (No. 26 overall) and midfielder Chelsee Washington (No. 30 overall).
“I think things that we looked at from last season were the competitive edge in terms of physicality,” Pride Head Coach Marc Skinner said, per the team’s release. “I don’t feel that we had that, or we had it in limitations. So, what I wanted to do, coming into this, was identify players that can technically play, physically play but also, having interviewed them almost in conversations, just see if they can mentally step up.”
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Kornieck joins the Pride after starting all 82 of her appearances for Colorado. She leaves the Buffalo after becoming their all-time leader in points (102) and assists (24). Kornieck scored 39 goals, too, as she earned All-Pac 12 honors in each of her collegiate seasons and was named to the MAC Hermann Trophy watch list for her sophomore, junior and senior years.
At the international level, Kornieck has played with the United States women’s national team at the U-18, U-19 and U-20 levels. She was the team captain for the U-18s in 2016 before she scored her first international goal for the U-19 squad in 2017.
“I’m looking forward to playing with all these incredible players — that’s No. 1,” Kornieck said after being selected, per the Pride. “And I’m also looking forward to just the physicality, and I’m getting ready for — people are gonna shove me a little bit, so I’m excited for that part.”
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Petersen spent the last five years at the University of Virginia where she made 58 starts and 78 appearances and recorded five goals and 12 assists. Following her junior and senior seasons, the 22-year-old earned United Soccer Coaches All-Region honors. She also earned her first Top Drawer Soccer Best XI selection after the 2019 season, having been named to the second team.
The Canton, Michigan, native has international experience with the United States’ U-14, U-15, U-17 and U-20 teams, and she made two appearances in the 2016 U-20 Women’s World Cup.
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Plummer is the closest to a homegrown player that the Pride have. She’s from the University of Central Florida, but what’s even more interesting is she’s also the captain of the Jamaican women’s national team. Plummer played two seasons for the Knights, making 25 appearances and scoring a goal. In her final season, she was named the American Athletic Conference Defensive Player of the Year and earned All-AAC First Team.
Before UCF, she played 38 games in two seasons at Southeastern University.
As captain, Plummer led Jamaica to its first-ever appearance in the FIFA Women’s World Cup this past summer. She played all 270 available minutes. In total, the 22-year-old has made 20 senior-team appearances.
Plummer is the first Jamaican-born player to be drafted in the NWSL.
“Just playing at any professional level, I’m very grateful,” Plummer said. “But, especially to stay in Orlando, where all my UCF people are, I’m just grateful to represent my Knights Nation and Jamaica, as well.”
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Like Petersen, McClennon, too, was chosen from the University of Virginia. She and Petersen helped the Cavs to 14 clean sheets in 2019, including seven consecutive in Atlantic Coast Conference play. In total, McClennon played in 88 matches and scored a goal. She earned All-ACC honors in her sophomore, junior and senior seasons.
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Shorts comes from the University of Denver. She was named the Summit League Defensive Player of the Year in 2019. The Denver, Colorado, native was also named to the 2019 Summit League All-West Region First Team and the Summit League First Team and All-Tournament Team. In total, Shorts appeared in 69 matches and seven assists.
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Kim was an offensive force in her time at the University of California, Berkeley. There, she scored 18 goals and notched 10 assists in 80 appearances. Kim was the Bears’ team captain in her senior season last year and earned United Soccer Coaches All-Region Third Team honors for the second-consecutive year. Her first three seasons were also decorated with All-Pac 12 selections.
Internationally, Kim has played for the U.S.’s U-18 and U-20 squads and was a part of the 2018 FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup roster. In 24 caps for the U-20s, she scored six goals.
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Washington was the Pride’s final pick of the 2020 draft. She hails from Bowling Green State University, where she became the 2019 MAC Offensive Player of the Year. The Carrollton, Texas, native recorded 21 goals and 23 assists in 85 appearances for the Falcons. She earned All-MAC First Team honors in 2018 and 2019 and was also named to the United Soccer Coaches All-Midwest Region First Team.
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With the addition of four defenders with four of their first five picks, the Pride have made it clear their focus is on defense. There probably isn’t an expectation that rookies like Petersen and McClernon start on the back line, despite their joint pedigree, but it’s likely they’ll figure to be prominent rotation players, at the very least.
Last season, the Pride allowed 53 goals, the most by any team in a single season since 2016 (the since-folded Boston Breakers allowed 53 in 2014). That vulnerability led to the worst goal differential (-29) in 2019, the third-worst difference in the league’s history.
The Pride also struggled in the attack, scoring the third-fewest goals last season (24). Forward Marta Vieira da Silva led all scorers with just six goals in 14 appearances, 14 starts. Despite Orlando’s defensive deficiencies, Kornieck was presumably the Central Florida side’s first choice because she was too good to pass.
“I’m gonna say this in the nicest possible way: She’s a beast,” Skinner said of Kornieck. “… To find a player of that stature physically that has the ability to play is also — if you scouted the world for them, there’s not that many. So, we found that she had to be a key target for us …”
For more on the Pride, as they continue preparations for the 2020 season, follow Victor Tan on Twitter at @NDR_VictorTan.
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